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Andy Pruitt - one of the foremost authorities in
cycling biomechanics, gave
an informative and comprehensive overview (albeit
only 2.5 hours) of some of the more important
considerations of a good bike fit.
Two of the more important, yet often overlooked,
considerations to a good fit are the movement of the
knee in the Z Plane, and the varus/valgus action of
the foot relative to the pedal and knee. In short the
Z Plane is the view of the knees movement arc as
seen from the front. Correct alignment will have the
knee/knee cap sitting neutral to the ankle during the
entire range of motion. A small figure 8 pattern is
usually the norm, but a more pronounced figure 8
pattern is also common. A good line-of-sight
estimate is to have the ankle, knee and hip insertion
point all sitting in alignment. As the knee tracks
through the pedal stroke it shouldn't deviate from
this alignment much at all.
Of course central to the tracking of the knee is the
Varus/Valgus inclination of your foot. Varus deformity
is a term for the inward angulation of the distal
segment of a bone or joint, valgus is the opposite
(thanks Wikipedia!) Does your knee tend to angle in
on hard pedaling, remain neutral, or
align slightly bow-legged? Ideally the foot is well
supported at the metatarsals and doesn't collapse
inwards (varus) or outwards (valgus). If it does you
might consider the use of a shim or a custom footbed
to help keep the foot in a neutral and efficient
position. Power transfer will improve as will cycling
efficiency. Now there is much more to this set up
and process than what I've described here so don't
take the law into your own hands, you take 'em to
court...oh wait, wrong show! Find a qualified person*
to assess your natural biomechanics and then use
that information to set you up on the bike in as
neutral a position as is feasible.
*We are pleased to offer both Z Plane and
Varus/Valgus evaluation, in addition to the other
critical components of a good fit as part of our PRO-
FIT service. Further, we are committed to continually
improving our educational development in this area
and partnering with companies that expand our
service offerings
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Great, just what you wanted to hear! Now you can
increase the total duration of your workout spent at
those blisteringly hard workloads, lucky! While it is a
common training strategy to break up the high
intensity intervals into smaller segments with
complete or nearly complete recovery between, a
new approach to this interval format was presented
by Dr. Stephen McGregor, from Eastern Michigan
University
Dr. McGregor affirmed that when doing VO2 level
workouts
a motivated athlete can generally sustain (endure?)
a steady state time of approximately 3 - 7 minutes,
depending on fitness and mental drive. In addition
subsequent efforts at this workload will begin to
show either a decrease in duration or absolute
power, so they quickly lose their effectiveness as a
training tool.
Instead Dr. McGregor explained the numerous
benefits
of
breaking the workload into smaller parts, AND
increasing the demand during the recovery phase. In
short he postulates that breaking your VO2 efforts
into a series of 30s bouts at 100% of VO2max during
the "ON" portion, and
70% VO2max during the recovery phase, allows the
athlete to both increase the total time at VO2 level
intensity, and maintain the appropriate work level for
a longer period of time. From a training approach I
would recommend that you condition your body to
the workload by gradually increasing the volume of
this training. For example start with only 2 - 4
minutes of 30s/30s intervals and add a minute or two
each week. This allows
the body to adapt and helps keep you from frying
your brain and legs! Have fun with these!
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Hydration and the effects of heat are often
mentioned as an important considerations in the
performance equation. We've all heard that if you
don't stay on top of fluid intake and your core
temperature that performance will suffer, but what
exactly does that mean?
Dr. Lawrence Armstrong gave an informative and
interesting look at the role hydration and core
temperature play in sport. According to Dr.
Armstrong a body weight loss of as little as 3%
causes a reduction in endurance performance! That
means if a 150lb athlete loses as little as 4.5lbs of
body weight during training or competition it could
make a huge difference. Now 4.5lbs may sound like a
lot, but it's less than you would imagine. Most trained
athletes are losing somewhere in the area of 1.5 -
3.0 quarts of sweat an hour! That's between 3 and 6
lbs of sweat loss each hour ("a pints a pound" is a
common way to think of fluid weight - 2 pints to a
quart). To get an idea of your personal sweat rate it
is recommended that you weigh yourself before and
after a "typcial" exericse bout or competition, add
back any water that you ingested and divide that by
the time of exercising (best to work in one hour
increments...just makes the math easier, lol!). There
are many factors that can affect sweat rate
including the intensity and duration of exercise, the
environmental heat and humidity, pre-competition
hydration level, and evel recent sleep loss!
Another area of importance is your core temperature
during training and competition. A typical athlete will
have an exercising core temperature of around
39C/102F (remember your resting temp is
~37C/98.6F). Research has shown that the brain will
voluntarily reduce force and work output when the
core body temperature exceeds 40C/104F. That is a
range of as little as 2% in core temperature between
optimal and "overdone!" To help control this you need
to be aware of ways to keep yourself cool at the
CORE! This is important becuase cooling usually
occurs at the periphery (skin) which actually
promotes increased core
temperature due to cardiovascular strain
from the increased blood flow to the periphery (less
blood for the muscles/core). A good heat
acclimization program with your coach will help you
manage these effects and maintain your performance
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If you are not currently on a coaching program now is a good time to start (or restart)! We offer a variety of coaching options for athletes at every level. From the ease and simplicity of our pre built training plans to the private training sessions of our Gold and Sterling programs, each one is created with athletes in mind. In addition, If you are a member of one of our sponsored teams you'll enjoy a substantial discount as well. So do something productive for your cycling...Sign up for a Sterling Sports Group Program Today!
Sincerely,
Matt McNamara
Sterling Sports Group
email:
info@sterlingwins.com
phone:
408.891.3462
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